My friend Martyn has written a bit of an expose on the Charismatic church in Redding, CA. He examines their many excesses and bizarre practices. Yet, he also concludes there is a great level of devotion and passion at the place as well. His conclusion is good and honest, and his writing is, as usual, beautiful.

Smith emphasizes the problems of small rural towns in this piece and notes the desperate need that they have for churches to be resources of hope, help, and stability in such contexts. He notes the glamorization of big city ministry, and the media bias on presentations of the poor as well and how such things have shaped church planting in our current culture. This is a good piece. Having served in a rural area for a number of years I appreciate so much of what Smith writes about, and it continues to call me to pray for rural towns in need.

I’ve said it more than once on this blog, but I love the new Ms. Marvel stories. Over at Christ and Pop Culture Jason Morehead shares his experience reading it and how it shaped his parenting. I had to stop reading the article because it discusses content from volume four of the series, which I have not yet read, but I love any chance to promote good comics.

This article from TGC gives us some theological insights into the event of the ascension, separating it out from the resurrection as unique. It lists several major contributions that the ascension of Christ grants to our own Christian lives. A good reflection.

Dr. Kruger reviews the newest Bart Ehrman nonsense in this post over at TGC, demonstrating the very poor grounding for his arguments against the historicity and accuracy of the gospel accounts. Worthy of your time.

Dr. George gives a brief overview of the development of Capitol Hill Baptist Church and particularly of Mark Dever in this article at First Things. This is a rather strange place for such a blatant hagiography, but it’s an interesting read nonetheless and a joy to reflect on God’s answer to prayers from centuries ago.

This is a brief abstract for Dr. Sanders’ new article in the Criswell Theological Review. He proposes an organizational structure for teaching the Christology of Scripture that is borrowed from the first five ecumenical councils of the early church. Here he simply lists the three presuppositions that inform this organizational schema. I wish I subscribed to this journal, because I really would love to read this article from Sanders.

Anderson is exceedingly blunt and straight in this political commentary. He maintains that not only will he not vote for Trump, but he is washing his hands entirely of the Republican Party. Here he makes a case for why this is the right course of action for all Christians. Anderson writes:

The restoration of the evangelical witness in American political life must begin with the expunging of the failed forms of influence-seeking that have gripped us, and with a reinvigoration of the proper theological basis of our activity. The reality that “the party” will now turn its attention—is already turning its attention—to demanding fealty for Donald Trump from those whom he has openly and flagrantly mocked is a trumpet blast loud enough to awake even the Religious Right from the deathly slumbers of its partisan captivity, a captivity it has embraced to its own demise.

This is, of course, a personal essay, but I commend it as an insightful read.